


Marinette's Abs - Chloé

by OldAnimeFan



Series: Marinette's Abs [2]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Gen, Marinette's abs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-28
Updated: 2016-10-28
Packaged: 2018-08-27 13:50:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8404099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OldAnimeFan/pseuds/OldAnimeFan
Summary: The whole class goes to the beach for the weekend, to relax from a week of midterm exams.





	

**Author's Note:**

> 2016-11-14 - I edited this story a little, mainly for grammar and punctuation. If you've already read the story, you don't need to read it again as the changes were minor. In fact, you probably won't notice the changes I made.

I was running late, as is usual. And also as is usual, 'running' was the appropriate term.

This morning I had gotten up only a few minutes late. But I had spent too much time on the Internet, researching the latest fashions and, of course, the latest rumors of the fashion models. I also did my usual search for anything criminal happening in Paris, particularly anything that Ladybug and Cat Noir should be interested in, or more importantly, that Ladybug and Cat Noir should be handling right now.

Nothing today. At least so far.

So of course, I was running to school, trying to be there before the second bell rang (I was already too late for the first one).

It was the end of one of the midterm exam weeks. That meant that we would have the chance to relax a little over the weekend before starting up with the next section of all our class courses.

I raced into the classroom, tripping on the stairs, but this time, catching myself before I fell and disrupted the class further.

Adrien was already in the seat right ahead of me. As I sat down, he turned around and said, "Marinette, would you like to go to the beach with us this weekend?"

Adrien was asking me on a date? To the beach? Adrien? Adrien!

Completely flustered, I said, "You're fine..."

Then when I realized what I had said, "No, that's fine..."

"I mean Yes! Yes, I'd like to go to the beach with you!"

"OK," he said. "We were talking about it before you came in. All the rest of the class is going too."

Adrien was asking me out! On a date! To the beach! With me! And him!

"Alix has a relative who owns a small Bed and Breakfast hotel right on the beach in a small town on the Northern Normandy coast," he said. "She's already set it up so the whole class can go there this weekend."

Adrien asked me out...on a date...to the beach! Me! Him!

"So, we've all arranged to meet at the train station at 6:45 on Saturday. We can all go from there together. Can we count on you to supply us with some of your father's pastries we can snack on during the trip?"

Adrien! Date! Beach! Me! Him!

I squealed a little and just nodded.

I turned to Alya. "Adrien! Date! Beach! Me! Him!"

"Girl," she said, "you do realize that this is a class outing, and that Adrien wasn't asking you out on a date, don't you?"

"Adrien! Date! Beach! Me! Him!" I said, not hearing anything she was saying.

I don't really remember much about the rest of that day. But somewhere late in the afternoon, it finally hit me that this wasn't actually a date with Adrien. It was just a class outing, and Adrien would be there along with most of the rest of the class.

Early Saturday morning, we all met at the train station and bought our tickets. We were early enough that we all enjoyed the first course of the pastries I brought with me, leaving two or three more courses still in the box for the train and motor coach ride.

Even Chloé was there, which surprised me at first. I couldn't see her being the kind of person to ride something as pedestrian as a train, and then a motor coach from the train station to the village. But when we boarded, she crammed tightly into the same seat as Adrien, crowding him as tight as she could. So of course, that had been her plan all along.

The trip was uneventful. The train arrived only a little late, for a French train, and the motor coach going to all the small villages along the coast was already waiting for us. We boarded, again, with Chloé crowding Adrien in his seat.

Just before 11:00, we arrived at the hotel. It was small, so small that our class took up more than half the rooms there. But the price for a room was very reasonable. And with most of us sharing rooms (except for Chloé, of course), it was even cheaper still. I was paired up with Alix.

We all dropped our bags in our rooms, changed into our bathing suits and headed to the beach. Both Alya and I had on two-piece bikinis, as did most of the rest of the girls. And of course, Chloé had on the most expensive bikini, probably several times more than the rest of ours combined.

I had been looking forward to this...and dreading it.

I was looking forward to seeing Adrien in his bathing trunks. I had never really seen him without a full set of clothes, usually from one of his father's clothing lines. Of course, I had seen him in a bathing suit in a couple of the magazine ads for his father, (in fact, I had a large poster of him dressed that way on my wall), but I had never seen him in real life in a bathing suit. I was looking forward to it. Really, really looking forward to it.

As for the dread part? Well, I was in a bathing suit myself, a bikini of my own design. No, it wasn't red with black polka dots. I was at least smart enough to know that that had the possibility of raising questions that I didn't really care to answer. So it was a simple white one I had made myself. But as Alya already knew, I had abs. And I really wanted to limit that knowledge to just the two of us. Fortunately, as I've described, my abs weren't that well defined as long as I didn't flex them or stretch too much.

I shouldn't have worried.

For two reasons.

First, with all the other girls in the class, and all the other girls who were already on the beach, there were so many different body types that even if my abs did show a little, (which they did), I still blended in with all the girls there. So no one seemed to notice me.

And my body hadn't really changed that much. Yes, it had grown a little harder and a little more defined, but it was still as slim as before I became Ladybug. It had always been slim, so it still looked the same, more-or-less.

Second, there was Chloé, with her expensive bikini. She had a model's body. It was still slim, a little less slim than mine, but she strutted it around as if she were on a catwalk. Like a fashion model. And she acted like one too, self-absorbed and, well, yes, snooty. So all of the boys, and even a few of the girls, were watching her, more than anyone else.

And then there was Alya.

I hadn't noticed Alya's body before. What with her always wearing that loose plaid shirt and the simple T-shirt underneath, I hadn't really noticed her body. But now, in her bikini, she had shape. Her body had shape to it, more than even Chloé's did, and more than mine did, obviously. She was the same age as all the others in the class, but I noticed she looked more grown up (and grown out, I realized), than all the other girls in our class. And again, all the boys were noticing it too.

So with all that, my abs were visible but ignored, (and therefore not really visible).

We all went down to the beach. I brought the croissant sandwiches my father had made for us and set them out on one of the beach tables under a big umbrella. And for most of the rest of the day, we alternated between swimming, playing in the water, throwing beach balls around and generally running up and down the beach, chasing each other. It was lots of fun, and took our minds completely away from school and midterm exams. Of course, that's what it was for. And it worked.

All that is except for Chloé. She was camped out on one of the beach chairs, sunning herself, not particularly interested in anything else going on, completely absorbed in herself it looked like. When we had all first arrived at the beach, she had asked Adrien to spread suntan lotion all over her, batting her eyelashes and pursing her lips like she does when she is trying to get someone to do something for her. But just at that time, some of the other boys called to him to come out into the water with them, and he told Chloé maybe later and ran off to his friends. Sometimes, I wonder if Adrien really is that innocent or if he is just acting that way, maybe fooling us all. In any case, Sabrina ended up oiling her up, and Chloé spent the rest of the day sitting, stretching, posing and generally showing off to anyone who would even glance her way. And as far as I know, she never even went into the water.

Late in the afternoon, we played Combat de Chevalier in the water. It was going to be a girl-girl, boy-boy fight. All of us paired up to play it. In this game, two people form a team. One of each team carries the other one on their shoulders in the water. The one on the bottom is in the water at most up to their chest, the horse. The other one is the knight. The horse can only carry the knight, while the knight tries to unseat all the other knights any way they can, grabbing, pushing, pulling.

This was the only time Chloé seemed interested in joining us. She went up to Adrien, and asked him to be her horse.

Of course, I should have known. Her sitting on top of Adrien's shoulders, hugging him, her legs wrapped tightly around his neck. Unfortunately for her, but fortunately for me, (since I don't know what I would have done if I had seen her up there on My Adrien...I mean Adrien), he said he was going to be carrying one of the other boys instead. And with that, Chloé stomped off back to her chair. And every time I looked at her, she was scowling at Adrien, all the other boys and girls, me personally, and the rest of the world in general.

It was going to be a girl-girl, boy-boy fight. By the time I decided to look for a partner, over half the class had already paired up. Both Alya and Alix were still there on the beach. But looking over the rest, I noticed that Mylène was still there too. She looked very sad. I could imagine that none of the other girls wanted to be carried by her, as short as she was, and she was also a little too heavy for most of the rest of the girls to carry her. I could see her getting sadder as she was passed up time and again for someone lighter or someone stronger. Alya or no, I just had to pick her. Seeing her face brighten up to a wide grin when I picked her to ride on my shoulders just made the whole trip to the beach worth it, more than anything else that weekend.

I told you my adventures as Ladybug had made my abs strong. Well, jumping around the rooftops of Paris, from the ground to the top of a building, and from building to building, and from a building back to the ground, had done the same for my leg muscles. And swinging from Paris rooftop to rooftop, using my yoyo to pull myself through the most torturous twists and turns, did the same for my arm muscle strength. So overall, I was in top physical shape, stronger than I had ever been in my entire life.

So yes, Mylène was a little too heavy for the average girl my age.

But I wasn't the average girl my age.

Mylène turned out to be quite the tactician. We started out as usual, with me carrying her and her grabbing another girl. In fact, we were almost the first girls to be dunked when the other girl leaned back, almost pulling Mylène forward, off my shoulders. But fortunately, I was able to step forward rapidly enough to re-balance her back upright. They both let go, and the other girl turned around and went looking for someone else.

"Mylène, what do we do now? It's your decision after all, since you're the knight and I'm only the horse."

Mylène didn't say anything for several seconds, just looked around. I was just about to tell her we should go over to the main cluster of girls, when she said, "Right!

"See those two girls over there? Turn toward them and go straight ahead as fast as you can. When I tell you, turn left and continue in that new direction, again as fast as you can."

I saw where we were headed, straight at Alya on Alix's shoulders. So, we were going to take on the two strongest players in the game. That would be interesting. It would be a contest of my strength against Alya's. And maybe I could get her back for those times she had punched my abs when I wasn't expecting it.

We charged directly at Alya and Alix. We had closed half the distance when Mylène said, "After you turn left, when I tell you, back up as fast as you can. Expect me to be off-balance for a little, but don't worry about it. I'll recover. But expect me to give you more directions for a new turn back to the right, or maybe the left, soon after you start backing up. Now, full speed ahead, horse!" and as I charged forward, she leaned forward into the charge, forward toward Alya and Alix.

We were only a couple seconds from grappling with Alya when Mylène yelled, "Hard left!"

Not knowing what was going on, I obeyed her order, turning left and continuing in that new direction, again at full speed. But as if by magic, another girl team appeared dead ahead of us. We were going right for them. I was focused so much on where I was going now that I didn't see what Alya and Alix had done, but I could imagine them completely confused. I was confused myself.

We hit the other team full force. I could see the surprise on their faces as we ran at them. Just as Mylène grappled with the top girl, she yelled, "Back! And be ready for a hard right pivot!"

The other team had seen us coming, so the top girl leaned forward to stop that juggernaut that was Mylène. But since I was already backing up, and Mylène was leaning back, pulling the top girl with her, both the other two girls went into the water, face forward. "Right pivot! And be prepared to keep me balanced when I tell you."

I turned around, and saw Alya and Alix bearing down on us. "Keep pivoting right," said Mylène, as Alya and Alix drove by me, just a foot from my face. Mylène grabbed Alya's arm as she went by, and leaning back, pulled her off Alix and into the water.

"Balance!" said Mylène, and I backed up a couple steps quickly to keep her balanced on my shoulders.

"Good horse," said Mylène, and she patted me on the head.

In just about ten seconds, we had taken down two of the girls' teams, and the best team at that. And by the time the four girls were able to stand up, we were on our way looking for other knights and their noble steeds to vanquish.

That's how it went, mostly, the rest of the fight.

We did get a chance to battle Ivan. Mylène was especially interested in doing that. Yes, we won. It wasn't even close. Basically, as boys are wont to do, both Ivan and the boy holding him on his shoulders (I think it may have been Kim, but I was too busy following Mylène's directions to notice), each of the boys thought they knew the best way to knock Mylène off her horse, me. So with both of the boys working against each other, Mylène and her trusty steed were able to get in close to them and by alternately pushing and pulling Ivan, and with me keeping Mylène balanced upright, we were able to knock him off-balance backward into the water, to a round of applause from everyone else in the class, all of whom had stopped their own private battles to see our fight.

A little while later we were dunked ourselves when a couple of the girl teams decided on a temporary truce to put us down together. In any case, we had outlasted well over half the other teams, had taken down several of the girl teams, including the strongest girl team, and had even taken down one of the boy teams. But I knew the applause when we came out of the water was all for the Knight Mylène. Not for her horse. But I didn't care.

Yes, as you would expect, one of the boy teams won. But as much as I had hoped otherwise, it wasn't Adrien's.

That night, we had a bonfire out on the beach, replete with frankfurters and marshmallows. Chloé finally got the chance to be next to Adrien again. How I wished that were me sitting next to him.

The next day, we all got up early, even though last night had run well into this morning. Alix and I packed up, though I personally didn't have that much clothing for a single night's stay. After we dropped our luggage with the concierge, to be picked up again before we would go to the motor coach stop for the trip home, we all met at the hotel's breakfast bar. Alix and I had a nice long talk at our table with the hotel's owner, the relative of Alix's who had been our host for the class' beach vacation. Then we all hit the beach again.

Late morning, Alya pulled me over to the side, well out of earshot of the other girls swimming in the water with us.

"Girl, I need to see you."

"What do you mean?" I said, a little confused. "You've been seeing me all weekend, and can see me right now."

"I need to see you in your bikini. Your abs. You know, this may be the only time I get to see them up close and open like this. I need to see all of them, as tight and hard as you can make them."

I knew what she meant. With my bikini, the whole of my abs were exposed. If I tightened them and stretched them out, they would be exposed prominently. The ridges of muscle that were barely visible when I was relaxing usually stood out in prominent relief when I flexed them tight. Yes, Alya had seen my abs before. But most of the time, they were covered by a T-shirt, or only a little of them were visible. And I guess, as my best friend and the only one who even knew I had abs, she deserved it.

"OK, but you have to do something for me first," I said.

"What?"

"See Chloé over there sunning in her beach chair? Well, first point at her with your finger, then laugh as loudly as you can."

"I don't see why..."

"Just do it. And I'll explain," I said.

Alya hunched her shoulders and then pointed at Chloé, laughing loudly. I joined her, also laughing loudly.

"There," I said. "Now if anyone is wondering what we're talking about all alone over here, they'll now assume that we're talking about Chloé, one of the most popular topics two girls from our class would talk about in private."

I turned so my back was to the rest of the girls and flexed my abs hard. I didn't raise my arms in a bodybuilder's pose, or even tighten my fists into balls to help show them off to their peak of muscularity. I reserved those poses for myself, in front of my mirror, at home. I also reserved for my mirror the sit-up pose, where I laid down, added a stack of heavy books to my hands, holding them well out above my head and, hooking my feet under my bed, did a sit-up. With this move, my abs muscles stood out so prominently they actually resembled the female bodybuilder's I tried not to emulate.

I didn't do any of those. But still, my abs showed off the underlying muscles that are always there, but usually not visible.

"Remember," I said to Alya. "We're just two girls having a private conversation about Chloé," I said. Alya's hands retracted back a little, confirming my suspicions as to what she was about to do on seeing my abs displayed as they were.

We talked together some more, actually getting around to Chloé in the end, as all the while I prominently displayed my abs flexed tightly for her.

"OK," I said finally. "Let's get back to all the others," and I relaxed my abs back to their relaxed state. In this direct, overhead sun, you could still see the outlines of all those abs muscles, but they weren't all that visible that they would be noticed as any more than that of a good fitness body, one that exercised regularly, but not too regularly. In other words, they were just about average, or only slightly more so, than a typical slim teenage body.

And were thus invisible.

Around noon, someone started up a beach volleyball game. All the boys were on one side, and all the girls were on my side, except for Alya and a couple other girls who were on the boy's side just to make the teams more even, since there were more girls than boys. But Alix was on our side, which really made the teams more even.

We were losing quite badly. As expected, the boys were, by and large, better players. As boys do, they tended to be better at sports than the girls. So, we were way behind. And getting behinder all the time.

After the rotation after the boy's won their point, I was at the net opposite Alya. Both Alix and I had been the two best players on the girl's side so far, though I was way behind Alix in ability. And that shows you what the skill level of the rest of the girls was like. But I was now opposite Alya in the middle of the net. And I was determined that I was just as good at this as she was, hopefully better, with my muscles making up for her skills. Hopefully.

Kim served the ball. One of the other girls, I think it might have been Mylène, received it and set it up for Alix to handle. I had to look out to see if Alix was going to set it up for me so I could spike it, and she did. I jumped up and drove the ball straight down into the boy's side. But Alya was right there and batted the ball up high at the last minute. She didn't get a good angle on it, so it went more-or-less straight up and down, right onto our side, right at me. I knew I needed to loft it up, hopefully in a direction where Alix could get to it and set it up for one of us to handle.

I saw the ball coming straight down at me. It would be on my side, but would be within inches of the net. With it that close to the net, I knew I would have to jump up real high and intercept it above the net, so I could set it up backward to my team to handle.

The ball just hung there in mid-air, it seemed, then started down. I crouched down then jumped up, timing my jump so I would reach the peak just as I intercepted the ball, stretching my arms to their limits, to tip the ball back in Alix's direction. But Alya had other plans.

Just as my feet left the sand, Alya hauled off and punched me as hard as she could right in the middle of my abs. I didn't see her do it since I was looking upward at the ball, but she had punched me there so many times that I knew exactly what had happened just from the feel of her knuckles impacting my abs muscles. Yes, muscles. Stretched out like that for the jump, my abs muscles were taut and hard. And visible. And that's what saved me from her punch.

Yes, it hurt. But I was able to overcome the pain and continue my jump. But it had surprised me so much that I missed my target and instead drove the ball straight up into the air, arcing into the middle of the boy's side, where any of them could field it and return it.

When I landed, I landed on my feet, only a little unsteady. "Alya," I said quietly, hopefully so only she could hear. "I told you not to punch my abs when we're in public. I hope no one saw it."

I looked around. Everyone was looking at me, just staring. Everyone. "Well, too late." And to emphasize that, the ball landed in the middle of the boy's court, with no one on their side even trying to get to it.

After a couple seconds of complete, stunned silence, it was Alix who said, "Marinette!"

Alix could have said something like, "Are you all right?" or "Alya, why did you do that?" or even "That's a clear foul!"

But instead, she said, "Marinette, you've got abs!" And from the reaction of the rest of the class, I knew she was just saying out loud what most of the rest of the class was thinking. Or if they hadn't been thinking that before, they were now. Every one of them!

Well, now it was out. If they hadn't noticed that my abs were well-developed so far, they most certainly did now. There was definitely no way of hiding it. Every-darn-one of them knew.

In retrospect, it was probably a good idea. That dread I had at the beginning of the trip was gone. I didn't have to hide it any more, at least not from my classmates. And it wasn't like this was my only secret, nor my most important one.

By now, everyone was gathered around me, looking at my body, at the slightly red area where Alya's punch had landed. I could have covered up, or acted shy and asked them not to look, but things were way too much out of control for that now. So I did the most logical thing, as I had done with Alya. I told the truth, but not to the question.

Alix said, "How did you get..." and she just pointed to my abs.

"I carry around a lot of heavy stuff at my father's bakery. Have you ever tried to balance a 25-kilogram cake in the shape of the Eiffel Tower? And I usually run to school every day." All true, but not related directly to the question. And I most certainly wasn't going to say, "I climb buildings and run around the rooftops of Paris as Ladybug."

And since it was the same as I had told Alya, even she would believe that I got my strength from all that exercise.

Alix wouldn't let it go. "And that's how you were able to take that punch from Alya? It looked like she punched you with all her strength. I don't think any of the other girls could take a gutpunch that hard."

I just looked at her with a slightly sheepish look. I would let her interpret that, hopefully to indicate she was correct. But 'gutpunch?' Why did she use that word?

"Can I punch you?"

I turned in the direction of the question. It was Mylène. I most certainly wouldn't have expected her to be the one to ask that. Or to put it more precisely, I wouldn't have expected her to be the first to ask that, at least not before the trip. But now, after Combat de Chevalier yesterday, she had changed. She had more confidence at least.

There was no way out of it. I could see it coming, and there was no way out of it. Everyone who had seen Alya punch me in, what did Alix say, in the gut, would be wondering if I could take their punch, or maybe what it felt like to punch me. And there may even be some who were wondering what it felt like to be punched there themselves.

I could see it coming, and there was only one way out "Yes," I said, and tightened my abs.

I tightened my abs, expecting Mylène's punch. And as I had hoped, it was lighter than Alya's of a few minutes earlier. A couple of the other girls said "Oh" and "Ah" when the punch landed, and I grunted only a little. And that was it. As far as Mylène was concerned, of course.

Over the next few minutes, several of the other girls punched my abs, all with varying degrees of effectiveness. Yes, it hurt, each time. But yes, not as bad as Alya's all-out, surprise attacks on my abs.

I was just about to get punched by one of the girls when, completely unexpectedly, Chloé came up. "Out of my way!" she said, pushing the other girl back. "It's my turn now. I've been wanting to do this ever since... Ever since... Well, just ever since."

Yeah, that's Chloé, all right.

Not wasting any time, Chloé punched me in the abs, right in the middle. Of course, I wasn't about to let her get the better of me, especially this way. So I had tightened my abs as hard as I could, intentionally letting the muscles show, again as much as I could.

I told you I had muscles that showed prominently when I flexed my abs hard? Well, yes and no. Yes, they showed a six-pack, but no, they weren't anywhere near what a professional bodybuilder's looked like. They weren't even as sculpted as one of those fitness models you see in the fashion magazines. They weren't even as pronounced as most of those skinny fashion models in those magazines. But that didn't mean they weren't hard.

I let her hit me in my abs. She wasn't that strong, at least not that way, so it didn't hurt that much. (Yes, all the punches from all the girls hurt. How could a punch to the middle of the abs not hurt?) But Chloé's punch was just about in the middle of the other girls' punches strength-wise, maybe a little less. So I just stood there, looking at her. Even if she had been much stronger than Alya, I would have pretended that I wasn't hurt. But in this case, I didn't have to pretend, not much at all.

I'm pretty sure that no one else saw Chloé's expression when her punch landed. It was a mixture of surprise and anger, and maybe a little envy. But it was only for an instant, as she covered it up with her usual haughty sneer.

"I wasn't ready," she said, though probably no one believed her, since she had been free to throw the punch any time she wanted, as I just stood there, still, waiting for it.

"Let me do that again."

"OK," I said. 

And she set herself to punch me again. 

"But only if you let me punch you back," I continued, trying to keep back a little smile.

This stopped her.

I could see several expressions flicker over her face briefly. First, I could see she really wanted to punch me again, to make me collapse in a pile on the sand, writhing in pain. But I could see that she wasn't that sure that she had the strength to do that to me. And second, I could see she didn't want to be punched herself, with her possibly being the one ending up in the sand. And of course, I could see a flicker of fear over her face, thinking about what the pain would be like to her.

And of course, there was her pride. If she backed off on her challenge, in front of all her classmates, she would have to worry about all the talk about her back at school. Since she ruled the classroom through intimidation, she would lose that as a tactic to control the others. They would simply bring up her backing off the challenge to me. She would lose any credibility she had at school.

In the end, she just said "Fine!" and punched me. This time, it was harder than the previous one, but just as ineffective.

I could see a little fear in her eyes, but only for an instant. But to her credit, she didn't back off. She stood there with her hands on her hips as I got ready. From her pose, relaxed as she was, it was evident she had never been hit before. Otherwise, she would have tightened up what abs she had to take the punch.

You know, Chloé was always after me in school. And every time she insulted me, bumped me out of her way or otherwise made my life miserable, making me frustratingly mad at her, I thought about what it would be like if I could get her back. And now that the opportunity was here, it wasn't as satisfying as I thought it would be. It didn't seem as important to return her slights to me. And after all, it wasn't like she had actually hurt me with her soft punches.

I punched her in the middle of her fashion-model body, right at her navel. It was a soft punch. But it still penetrated easily. Obviously, she wasn't prepared for the punch at all, or only a little. She didn't fall down, but she bent over, holding her stomach. And again, to her credit, she straightened up as soon as she could. Of course, it was probably that she was trying to show to all the other girls that my punch hadn't hurt her, and that she was still better than I was. And her next words confirmed that.

"That didn't hurt me at all. And I wasn't even punching you hard either. Now let's try that again, and this time I'll punch you as hard as I can."

"Fine," I said. "And I'll punch you as hard as I can too, right? Oh, and I wasn't punching you anywhere near as hard as I could either.

"So one last punch, and we'll see who ends up on the sand, shall we?" I said.

"Fine," she said again, though I could see that this time, she wasn't at all as certain about the outcome as last time.

As before, I tightened up my abs as hard as I could. I was certain I didn't need to, but I guess I was showing off a little. And maybe I was just getting tired of Chloé's bragging about how she was better than I was.

Chloé punched me as hard as she could, I'm certain. But it wasn't the hardest punch I had received that day, so it didn't do any more damage than her two previous punches.

"All right, my turn. As hard as I can, right?" I said.

The look on Chloé's face was one of almost panic. Looking around, she spotted Adrien and ran to him.

"Adrien! Are you going to let her punch me? I thought we were close friends!"

"Chloé," he said, "you're the daughter of the mayor. You made a promise to Marinette, a commitment to do this. We all heard you. As the daughter of the mayor of Paris, you should keep your promises, shouldn't you?"

Chloé looked straight at him, then lowered her head and turned and walked back to me. She looked up at me, this time her face full of sadness, and, what, resignation? It wasn't fear at being punched, but the realization that it will hurt, a lot, but that there was nothing she could do.

I leaned over to her and whispered, "Clasp your hands behind your neck and tighten your abs, your stomach muscles, as tight and hard as you can. That will help."

I punched her in the middle of her stomach again, as we had both promised to each other, as hard as I could punch. Her mouth flew open and she groaned a little, then she fell over sideways to the sand.

As I said, I was surprised that I wasn't overjoyed at having finally bested Chloé. But I didn't have a chance to think about it more. All the other girls gathered around me and started to ask me questions, ignoring Chloé. Except for Sabrina, of course, who helped Chloé up. Even Alya went to her, I presume to make sure she was really OK. I was happy to see that Chloé was able to walk almost immediately, holding her stomach but bent over only a little. For someone who I would guess had never been in a fight, let alone been punched, she was tougher than she seemed at first.

Then things got busy, with me answering questions about all sorts of things from the other girls. The two most common questions had to do with how I learned to fight like that (I actually didn't learn, it just seemed natural was my answer, which in this case, was the complete truth), and what did it feel like to be punched in the abs (I answered, "Here, I'll show you," to nervous laughter, though no one pursued that question further).

We talked about a half an hour. But we were suddenly interrupted by Adrien. "Girls, we need to start thinking about our trip back to Paris. If I remember correctly, the motor coach will be at the hotel in about an hour. And if we miss that, we'll miss the last train to Paris tonight."

This catalyzed us all into action. For the next hour, we were all running around the beach changing tents and the hotel almost in a panic, collecting our baggage, showering and changing into our street clothes for the trip back to Paris. At one particular time, the hotel dressing room was filled jam-packed with girls, all trying to change at the same time. But we all got to the motor coach pickup point outside the hotel on time, though for a couple, it was just as the coach was arriving.

The motor coach got to the train station with only a few minutes to spare, but French trains were always late so that wasn't a problem. On the return trip, Adrien had a seat to himself, as Chloé had decided to have her father send a car to pick her up instead of returning with the rest of us. I presume she had a lot to think about.

I was sitting with Alya. I had a lot to think about myself. I talked it over with Alya. Not only was the fact of Marinette's Abs out in the open, I had punched Chloé so hard she had collapsed. I was afraid what she would tell her father, the mayor, about this, and what he would do when he found someone had been punching his daughter. Would he have me arrested? Would I be thrown in jail? Would I spend the rest of my life breaking rocks for the state? Would I be destined to fight all the hardened criminals in the penitentiary, with Chloé looking on, watching me being beaten up?

Alya stopped me. She said not to worry about it. She had taken videos of the whole thing, from Chloé starting it and throwing the first punch, to Chloé lying in the sand, helpless from my last punch. She had told Chloé that if she were to do anything about it or even repeat what had happened, she would post the videos on the Internet, showing the whole world that Marinette was stronger and tougher than she was, and Chloé would never be respected in school again.

About half way to Paris, Alya got up and left, leaving me alone. I was tired, but so were most of the others. Most of them were already asleep, or at least drowsing. I was tired, but I also still had a lot to think about.

"Is this seat taken?" said Adrien. "Alya told me that she preferred a window seat, and asked me if I could change with her."

"No!

"Yes!

"I mean no! No, the seat isn't taken!

"Yes please sit down!"

I mentally thanked Alya. I would have to make sure she never ran out of those pastries my father made that she liked so much.

And Adrien and I talked the rest of the trip.

And I wasn't sleepy any more.

And all I could think of was, "Adrien! Date! Beach! Me! Him!"


End file.
